Could the same moc be entered in more than one category? For instance, if I make a big castle and enter it in the castle category, could I convert it into a siege scene and enter it in the castle siege category?

Also, do we need to keep our mocs assembled until the contest is over (I thought I read that somewhere...)

Okay, so that's two questions.

Thanks in advance.

God bless.

EDIT: One more question: How can the miscellaneous category be strictly fair. How can say a large diorama scene be judged on an equal level as say a brick built creature or minifig vehicle? It just seems too broad a category for successful evaluation.

Last edited by Voran_the_Scholar on Mon Nov 03, 2008 9:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

While we were on the subject of custom figs, what if my decals don't turn out super well, since I don't have a great printer? Will I get points off or something of that sort?

Quality of craftsmanship is taken into consideration for custom figures. So if your print quality is terrible, it could negatively impact your grade.

Can you tell a story with the 3 pictures? Not like a cartoon: just one scene, but with 'moving' figs?

You can do this for the Crime and Punishment and Miscellaneous categories.

CVfan13 wrote:Are we not allowed to submit entries yet, or something? When I clicked the "submit entry" link on the main page, it came up with a 404 error.

Please read the first post in this thread or the main page article for an answer to your question.

Voran wrote:Could the same moc be entered in more than one category? For instance, if I make a big castle and enter it in the castle category, could I convert it into a siege scene and enter it in the castle siege category?

Yes, if the "big castle" fits in the smaller size limits required by the siege category. Alternately, you could use part of your larger castle in another category if it falls within the 64x32 stud size limits.

Also, do we need to keep our mocs assembled until the contest is over (I thought I read that somewhere...)

No. But make sure your entry meets the categories requirements. If you build a creation too large for a category and then dismantle it, we may have to move it to the misc. category.

One more question: How can the miscellaneous category be strictly fair. How can say a large diorama scene be judged on an equal level as say a brick built creature or minifig vehicle? It just seems too broad a category for successful evaluation.

The miscellaneous category is a catch-all for creations which do not fit within other categories. Each year someone builds a creation so outstanding that they obviously win this category. This category should be your least priority in competing for the master builder prize.

Garbageman wrote:Hey, can I team-up with a friend to build my entiries? Nowhere in the rules did I read(or notice) that you had to be alone. If it's not allowed, I probably missed it..

We have allowed this in the past and had one winning team. If you win you must share the prize. In addition, the entry would count as one of your two entries in the category for each of you.

Voran_the_Scholar wrote:EDIT: One more question: How can the miscellaneous category be strictly fair. How can say a large diorama scene be judged on an equal level as say a brick built creature or minifig vehicle? It just seems too broad a category for successful evaluation.

I just wanted to expand a little on Ben's answer. The judging team has certainly seen enough MOCs that we're not swayed by size. I looked through past winners of this categories, and none of them was the largest in it's year. Back in CCCIII, Mark won this with a 16x16 MOC, and last year, Micah was definitely in the running and an honorable mention with a centaur that probably would fit into an 8x8 vig. We'd much rather see someone make a smaller creation well than a huge creation poorly.

Garbageman13 wrote:Well that stinks.. I thought being creative with a small amount of bricks is good. But being creative with a not so great printer is bad?

Trying to judge fairly based on what an artist *meant* to do versus what they *did* do is amazingly difficult, if not impossible. If I needed 4 75 degree corner slopes in gray, but only had 1, and I substituted in 3 blue ones instead, I think that would be similar. Sure, you can try and imagine that I submitted a color-coordinated MOC, but if I turn in something with a bevy of rainbow colors, it's difficult to judge that appropriately. Same goes with photo quality-- if your images are grainy, dark, small, and out of focus, that'll probably affect the judging, even if you can't afford a decent digital camera.

You should try to do the best with what you've got. My advice would be:

1) Print it out at Kinko's, or whatever your local printing venue might be. It's not very expensive, but it can be high quality.
2) Find a friend, workplace printer, school printer, etc, where you can print it out for free with better quality.
3) Avoid printouts, and try a different approach. Hand painting, modifying existing stickers, etc.
4) Let your own printer stand as it is. I don't know how bad you consider your printer to be, but it may not be that negative, depending on the specifics.

Quote: While we were on the subject of custom figs, what if my decals don't turn out super well, since I don't have a great printer? Will I get points off or something of that sort?

Quality of craftsmanship is taken into consideration for custom figures. So if your print quality is terrible, it could negatively impact your grade.

Well that stinks.. I thought being creative with a small amount of bricks is good. But being creative with a not so great printer is bad?

If I can be so free as to give you a tip, I'd say focus on what you can do, not on what you can't do. I don't have a very good printer myself, so I'm not going to enter the custom category for example. I'm going to focus on other categories that I know I can meet the requirements of.
You don't have to enter every category, so if you feel you can't reach the quality that you would want or otherwise be able to reach, just skip that category and focus your time and efforts on a category that you know you can do well in.

Between plotting to kill you all and chasing balls of yarn, I also build MOCs

The Rules wrote:Submissions can be entered into other LEGO contests but still must meet our category requirements. You can not submit any creations posted online or shown in public before November 1st, 2008.

architect wrote:We will be working on setting up the entry submission system over the next two weeks.

Is it okay to begin uploading to Flickr/Brickshelf et al now? Technically this would result in the entries being shown before they were actually submitted, I just wanted to check that this was okay?

Garbageman13 wrote:Well that stinks.. I thought being creative with a small amount of bricks is good. But being creative with a not so great printer is bad?

Trying to judge fairly based on what an artist *meant* to do versus what they *did* do is amazingly difficult, if not impossible. If I needed 4 75 degree corner slopes in gray, but only had 1, and I substituted in 3 blue ones instead, I think that would be similar. Sure, you can try and imagine that I submitted a color-coordinated MOC, but if I turn in something with a bevy of rainbow colors, it's difficult to judge that appropriately. Same goes with photo quality-- if your images are grainy, dark, small, and out of focus, that'll probably affect the judging, even if you can't afford a decent digital camera.

You should try to do the best with what you've got. My advice would be:

1) Print it out at Kinko's, or whatever your local printing venue might be. It's not very expensive, but it can be high quality.2) Find a friend, workplace printer, school printer, etc, where you can print it out for free with better quality.3) Avoid printouts, and try a different approach. Hand painting, modifying existing stickers, etc.4) Let your own printer stand as it is. I don't know how bad you consider your printer to be, but it may not be that negative, depending on the specifics.

DaveE

Thank you for taking the time to post that! I appreciate it!

About the whole,"creativity" thing, I still think it's a bit unfair, but I'll do my best.

Oh, Kinkos sounds like the best idea. If my printer ain't the greatest, I'll go there. I wonder if they can print out my small sheet of decal paper though... I'll have to look that up.

Aliencat wrote:

Garbageman13 wrote:While we were on the subject of custom figs, what if my decals don't turn out super well, since I don't have a great printer? Will I get points off or something of that sort?

Quality of craftsmanship is taken into consideration for custom figures. So if your print quality is terrible, it could negatively impact your grade.

Well that stinks.. I thought being creative with a small amount of bricks is good. But being creative with a not so great printer is bad?

If I can be so free as to give you a tip, I'd say focus on what you can do, not on what you can't do. I don't have a very good printer myself, so I'm not going to enter the custom category for example. I'm going to focus on other categories that I know I can meet the requirements of. You don't have to enter every category, so if you feel you can't reach the quality that you would want or otherwise be able to reach, just skip that category and focus your time and efforts on a category that you know you can do well in.

Thanks!! I still plan to get my feet wet, and try out the whole sha-bang of
catagories, or atleast most. My friend and I plan to work together on making some great entries.

RichardAM wrote:Is it okay to begin uploading to Flickr/Brickshelf et al now? Technically this would result in the entries being shown before they were actually submitted, I just wanted to check that this was okay?

Yes. It is after November 1st so you can put the images up on brickshelf or flickr.